Most year groups at private schools Helvetia, St George’s and Beaulieu have already returned either on a part-time or full-time basis. Years 6, 10 and 12 returned to States and fee-paying schools last week.
Parents from a number of those schools have been told by head teachers to expect further details this week about arrangements for those children who are still at home.
However, when asked yesterday if an announcement would be made this week, the government Communications Unit said it could not give any details, adding that they ‘had not been given a date yet’. Education Minister Tracey Vallois could not be reached.
But Marina Mauger, Jersey’s NASUWT union representative, said an announcement about reopening schools was due to be made later this week.
However, she added that discussions between teaching unions and the government about the exact details were ongoing.
‘There will be announcement later this week. I would hope that it will be sooner rather than later, but it very much depends on advice from STAC [the government’s Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee], how the teachers and parents feel [and] the minister’s decision, which will be informed
by health officials,’ she said.
‘There are so many safety issues to be taken into consideration and we are still working through those. I have been in all the talks and there has not been any date given.’
Mrs Mauger said that she did not think all year groups would go back to school at the same time – adding that it was likely to be a gradual process.
‘I think it will be more incremental. There are different scenarios based on age – a lot of those students in secondary schools are essentially young adults,’ she said.
‘The situation for a 16-year-old is different to an eight-year-old, and I would have expected them to look at all the evidence of how it [the virus] spreads in each age group.’
Meanwhile, pupils from all year groups at St George’s and Helvetia have gone back to school on a staggered basis.
At Beaulieu, Reception, Years 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10 and 12 have all returned.
Lindsey Woodward, the headmistress at Helvetia, said that the school had now begun welcoming all year groups back on a rotating part-time basis after initially being able to begin lessons for Year 6 pupils earlier this month. She added that the new system had so far worked very well.
‘They [Year 6] were initially very anxious, but then they settled in very quickly and they were very pleased to be back as they have not got very long left,’ she said.
‘At Helvetia we have got half of the school in at once – so we have got cohort one [Years 2, 4 and 5] and cohort two [reception and years 1 and 3].
‘At the moment, I have got cohort one in, so they will be here until Wednesday lunchtime and then they go home and do virtual school.’
She added: ‘We have got a “See-saw” programme, where the teachers put the work online and they can access that through the site.
‘We also use Microsoft Teams [video-conferencing software] to teach them. It is working really well.’
Ms Woodward added that the school had split year groups to enable them to keep them within their 15-pupil and two-teacher bubbles.
And she said that it was due to the school’s small class sizes that they had been able to restart operations.
‘If you imagine a big States primary school, they might have my whole school’s worth of pupils in a single year group. That is why we were able to bring back more children.’
